Presidential Candidates All Oppose Media Policy

Presidential Candidates All Oppose Media Policy

All six leading presidential candidates surveyed by the JoongAng Ilbo said the government decision to shut down the press rooms was a bad idea and unlikely to succeed. But their positions diverged on other media issues, such as whether print companies should be allowed to operate broadcasting firms. While Lee Myung-bak, Lee Hoi-chang and Rhee In-je, all following the typically conservative line, said newspapers should be allowed to run television stations to be more competitive, Chung Dong-young, Moon Kook-hyun and Kwon Young-ghil, on the liberal side, said permitting such an arrangement could lead to a monopoly of opinion. All six candidates oppose President Roh Moo-hyun’s media policy, which took effect in August. Roh put the policy in effect to try to end the exclusive atmosphere among reporters in the press rooms at various ministries, and also restricted access to officials. Grand National Party candidate Lee Myung-bak said he “certainly believed a media policy should be based on a grand principle that the press should have the freedom to write and report.” “Closing down press rooms and voiding existing press passes are outdated measures only an authoritarian government can do,” he said. “When I become elected, I am going to review this policy from the starting point.” Running independent this time, Lee Hoi-chang, in his third bid for president, called the media policy “deadly.” The United New Democratic Party candidate Chung Dong-young, a former television journalist who was a unification minister under Roh, said, “I understand why this policy went into effect, but I do not agree with how it’s being conducted,” Chung said. “It should be conducted in a way that lets reporters have enough access to sources for the sake of letting people know what they should know.” Only Lee Myung-bak and Rhee vowed to undo the changes.


From http://joongangdaily.joins.com/ 11/16/2007